This document provides a counterpoint to assertions commonly made by
those who deny that anyone was gassed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau and
other death camps during World War II; who, in fact, deny that the gas
chambers even existed.

The most prestigious source in Germany regarding the crimes of the
Nazis during WW2, the "Institute for Contemporary History" in Munich,
sums up the facts in a recent publication, mentioning 13 camps in which
gassing took place; here are the entries on Auschwitz and Treblinka.

Treblinka (district Warschau, general government) from the end of July
1942 on had three gas chambers and received at the start of

September 1942 furthermore ten larger gas chambers. Up to the
dissolution of the camp in November 1943 altogether 700,000 Jews were
killed here by carbon monoxide.

Auschwitz-Birkenau
(in the formerly Polish, in 1939 adjoined to the "Reich" upper eastern
Silesian area, south eastern of Kattowitz): The extermination camp in
Birkenau, established in the second half of 1941, was joined to the
concentration camp Auschwitz, existing since May 1940. From January
1942 on in five gas chambers and from the end of June 1943 in four
additional large gassing-rooms gassings with Zyklon B have been
undertaken. Up until November 1944 more than one Arial photo of
Auschwitzmillion Jews and at least 4000 gypsies have been murdered by
gas.

(Note that these numbers include only people gassed - many were
murdered using more "conventional" means. This is by no means a
replacement for serious research - just an expose
of common frauds like the "Leuchter report", and a guide to scholarly
sources.

The Infamous
"Black Wall' of Auschwitz Which was Used During Firing Squad Executions
to Protect The Bricks.

The appearance of a
quotation mark within a proper name indicates that
the previous letter should be read as an umlaut, although some quoted
material appends a trailing `e' instead. (I.e. Hoess and Hess
reference the same name.)

Overview

Fred Leuchter is a man with no formal training in either chemistry or
toxicology (he obtained a BA in history in 1964), and yet he claims to
be a professional engineer - an assertion that has landed him in hot
water in his home state. In 1988, at the request of Canada's Ernst
Zundel, Mr. Leuchter went to Poland and visited the site of the
Auschwitz extermination camp; (Mr. Zundel financed Leuchter's trip to
Poland.) The result of this journey was the "Leuchter Report." Here's
what Mr. Leuchter had to say about his "investigation:

The purpose [of the investigation and subsequent report] does not
include a determination of any numbers of persons who died or were
killed by means other than gassing or as to whether an actual Holocaust
occurred. It, further, is not the intent of this author to redefine
Holocaust in historical terms, but simply to supply scientific evidence
and information obtained at the actual sites and to render an opinion
based on all available scientific, engineering and quantitative data as
to the purpose and usages of the alleged execution gas chambers and
crematory facilities at the investigated locations. (Foner)

You will note, as we will demonstrate using Leuchter's own sworn
testimony, that Mr. Leuchter failed to demonstrate any concern for the
truth, even while under oath.

While testifying at Mr. Zundel's trial in Canada, Leuchter gave false
evidence concerning his professional relationship with the
administration of two American prisons regarding gas chambers, and
proved himself to be unfamiliar with the most basic facts about the
lethal gas Hydrogen Cyanide, including its flammability and the
concentrations and duration required for delousing purposes.

The "Leuchter Report" purports to "scientifically demonstrate" that
people were not killed by Zyklon-B at Auschwitz. It is composed of old
claims made by the French Holocaust denier Faurisson, as well as some
new ones. Many of the claims appear in the Institute for Historical
Review's "66 Q&A on the Holocaust" pamphlet, and also in arguments
offered by others who deny the Holocaust.

Zyklon-B

Zyklon-B is a powerful insecticide. It releases HCN,
Hydrocyanic acid, a gas - Zyklon-B is the carrier, a material soaked
with the gas; usually it comes in the shape of small pellets or disks.
HCN is what causes death. While interacting with iron and concrete, it
creates compounds ("Hydrocyanic compounds"). Leuchter concedes that
these compounds were found in the ruins of the gas chambers in
Auschwitz (as reaffirmed by the findings of the Polish government
institute, which completely rejects Leuchter's conclusions).

HCN is extremely poisonous to humans. It is used in execution gas
chambers in the US; the first such was built in Arizona in 1920. It is
absurd to claim (as the deniers do), that Germany in the 1940's could
not handle "technical difficulties" in using HCN for execution -
"difficulties" that were easily solved in 1920. Moreover, the Germans
had a lot of experience with HCN, as it was extensively used for
delousing.

There were two types of gas chambers in Auschwitz: those used for
delousing clothes ("delousing gas chambers") and those used for killing
people on a massive scale ("extermination gas chambers"). The delousing
gas chambers were a standard feature, and were left intact by the SS
(as opposed to the extermination gas chambers, which were dynamited in
an effort to conceal criminal activity from the rapidly approaching
Soviet Army). The deniers try to confuse the issue by mixing the two
types of chambers. For instance, they show pictures of the doors for
the delousing chambers, and note that they are too weak to withstand
the pressure of people trying to escape. Of course, the doors for the
extermination chambers were completely different, but that fact is
quietly overlooked.

Point, Counterpoint

Holocaust denial often involves the same assertions, repeated
endlessly, regardless of response. We present many of them for
consideration here, along with our response.

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